West Baffin Eskimo Co-op celebrates Cape Dorset's name change to Kinngait

The West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative is celebrating afterCape Dorset votedMonday to revert back to a previous nameKinngait.

"It's kind of a terrific moment, I think, in general for Cape Dorset," said William Huffman, the Toronto-basedmarketing manger withDorset Fine Arts. It'spart of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-op, which promotes and markets local artists' work.

The community is internationally renowned for its drawings, paintings and sculptures. Some of the many famous artists from the community includeKenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, and Nuna Parr.

However, Huffman isn't worried about the community name changeimpacting the brand of the artwork. He said the co-op uses Cape Dorset and Kinngait interchangeably in its material.

"I don't know that we'll have to do much changing," said Huffman. "I think that it's not much of a difficulty."

The co-op's artists studios are called KinngaitStudios, which is one of the reasons Huffman said he doesn't foresee a problem with the name change. In a recent show, Huffman said the words Cape Dorset didn't even appear in the informational material.

"This [is an] amazing moment in community's history," said Huffman.

Concern for confusion

However, there were someconcerns that southerners could be confused by the name change.

"Cape Dorset was, worldwide, known for its art," said Jimmy Manning, retail manager for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.

"And ifthat were to change maybe that would ... confuse the southern part or even around the world. So yes, it was a little bit of a concern there."

Only 192 people voted in the plebiscite in thecommunity of about 1,400 people.

On a community Facebook page, the returning officer Josephee Oqutaq posted a breakdown of the results. Kinngait won with 80 votes, Cape Dorset came in second with 61 votes and Sikusilaq followed with 51 votes.

The name will not be changed right away.

The hamlet council will need to move a motion to embrace the results of the plebiscite. They will then write a letter to the Nunavut minister of Community and Government Services to formally ask for the change. If approved by the minister, he will bring it forward to cabinet.